Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Soth]

I moved my business here. But all our income comes from 'outside world', still we have business in Korea.

PM me if you want to buy us beer but I am not sure if I can be helpful.

[Juregen]

[Lazio]

I hear you OP but trust me, when you start making 2 times what you make now (or more) it does change your overall feelings about your work.
You even have a teaching degree don't you?

Put things on measure: Pulling in 4-5 mil a month from day 1, have decent vacation time, and lot's of freedom to change jobs for better pay, location, less hours, different age groups etc.

Or investing a larger amount into a business which will be your life. Hard to get vacation, no flexibility, you are tied down. You might make 10 mil/month years later or you might not. Even if you do, just take an average for the next 10 years. See what Juregen wrote and don't forget to deduct the initial investment. Now remember the steady 4-5 mil for 10 years....

[Koreadays]

[Kennyftw]

[Kennyftw]

And thank you everyone else for your comments. Great advice there.

[minos]

I freelance on the side and work with a few small businesses here.
I'm starting an online business here for exporting however.

I'm no authority on the subject....

Most folks get loans....I'm guessing those 100-500 mil small business loans aren't super hard to get, but the collateral is usually something like land, a house, building, or apartment(I'm guessing most Korean families have at least a few folks who own some land or buildings somewhere).

Retail rent is super high(in seoul anyway).

Some folks have families who own a building, so they rent it out to their family to start a business. Ever meet a guy with zero business sense who has a big store?...Decent chance his family owns the whole complex.

Does your wife's family have a building? Your already 60% there.

As far as profit goes, nobody I met is making bank on their generic Hoff, lounge, chicken place, etc. Most are merely getting by....the few rich ones I met....own the building....

Only guy I can recall who struck it rich is Johnny who owns club naked and Naked lounge. Whoever owns luv lounge did pretty well too.

Notice the trend with buildings and rent? Whenever I talk to the owners of businesses here about money, it comes up at some point.




If you go bankrupt.....well, discharging your bad loans is MUCh harder here so I'm told. I'm guessing the less scrupleless lenders will send gangsters after you to get the money. One korean told me they take your kidney if your a guy

Just like the moview repo man!

I don't hyundai capital will do that.....maybe...

[minos]

[Freakstar]

I've been working in the corporate world for about 4 years now and frankly, I'm tired. I make very good money and the benefits are nice, but I've been working like a dog, pretty much non-stop for 4 years and I'm not as satisfied as I used to be. My wife and I have been talking about opening up some kind of business with some help from the in-laws but no matter what we decide, we both know that it's high-risk and that it won't be easy. What to do, what to do...

For the record, wife's a native and I'm a gyopo.

[PatrickGHBusan]

Bascially it breaksdown like this (as was stated by others in this thread I think):

If you open your own business, any business, you will be working nearly 6-7 days a week for the first few years and will not count your hours. This is unless you are part of that 0.0001% of people who hit a homerun.

You will need to invest a substantial amount of money as well.

You may not be able to afford hiring employees initially so guess what? You will need to do much of everything yourselves (you and your wife).

Ideally you can find investors to soften the initial personal investment but that brings a few more cooks into the kitchen as typical investors require a say in how their investment is handled.


When (or if) you get to hire people to work for you, strap in because managing people is no piece of cake. In fact, finding, hiring and managing people can be one of the biggest issues you will face as a business owner. Its not all that easy to find qualified dedicated people.

I started a consulting agency in Korea a few years ago (early 2000s) and hit a niche market with high demand. Still, I did not count my hours for the first couple of years and worked this while I was teaching.

Now, years later, I delegated a lot of things to employees but finding and hiring quality people is still damned hard. Managing them is one of the things that gets to me. I compared notes with other people in my situation and it seems they have similar gripes.

So in short, running your own show can be great and provide you with a great feeling of accomplishement but it will be a LOT harder and stressful that working for someone else....

Good luck.

[nathanrutledge]

[silkhighway]

Here are some thoughts from someone who hasn't yet opened his own successful business (so take it as is).

Hard work and passion is definitely needed...passion to make money. Passion for your idea on the other hand can be counterproductive.

Have a solid business plan. In particular, know your business, know your target demographic, know your risks, and have realistic benchmarks.

[PatrickGHBusan]

Both the previous posters are right: to be successful running your own business you will need to make a lot of sacrifices.

[DaHu]

You have to have an idea of what to do. You can't be wishy washy about what kind of business it should be.

[TheUrbanMyth]